Across the Ocean to the Itantan Islands:

Circus is in Town

One spring day, Heian disembarked from a ship and was following a road across one of the many Itantan Islands. During his travels he came across Oelwyn, a young man who grew up with his father in a small forest on this island. Heian spoke of a Circus that had come to this island, and this intrigued Oelwyn, as he had never heard of a Circus. So the two youngsters continued their journey toward a nearby town that the Circus had stopped at. While walking along, they heard a dog's bark echoing in the distance so they decided to investigate. They spotted a kid holding onto a rope which was dangling down a well in the ground. They approached the kid and asked if they could be of any help, and the kid said that his brother was down in the well and he is kinda heavy. Oelwyn grabbed the rope, while Heian looked down the well and there was another kid dangling from the rope trying to get to a dog stuck at the bottom of the well. Oelwyn lowered the rope some more and the dog was retrieved. When Oelwyn pulled the second kid up, Oelwyn and Heian noticed that they weren't kids, but they were Halflings. Oelwyn and Heian got nervous, they wondered if these were some of the "We Be Nasty" pirates, and if there were any Hill Giants around. Luckily, these Halflings were not pirates, but they were a different breed of Halflings that lived out on the ocean on rafts. The weak one that was holding the rope introduced himself as Welby Greenbottle and that his brother is Marcus Greenbottle, and they are of the Greenbottle Family. Heian brought up the Circus, and the Greebbottle brothers having been on a raft all their life had not heard of one either, so they joined us on our journey.

When we approached the small town, we saw tents set up outside the town. Heian was so excited, and explained that this was the Circus he had been telling us such wonderful stories about. We went over to a few of the tents, paid our admission fees (the "kids" got in for free), and saw some not so amazing things. We saw a FEROCIOUS Beast sleeping, Man Eating "Birds", a Fat Man, a Bearded Woman (the fat man's dwarven wife), and Kobold Clowns. As we approached the town's gate, we heard some commotion coming from some of the Circus workers, and we overheard them mention that some of the animals had escaped. We decided to investigate, and as we were walking down the road the Ferocious Beast attacked us, it's face looked horrible. After a few pokes of our swords and bashing of our maces, we brought the beast to the ground. We then examined the tent with the Man Eating "Birds", and they flew down at us and attached to us and started to suck our our blood. After a few swipes and clubbing blows, the Stirges fell from the sky. We then examined the clown tent, and noticed the clowns scurrying under the tent. We pursued them and heard the dog we saved barking in the direction of a house. We approached the house, and snuck in through some windows. We found a couple kobolds in the kitchen, and they attacked us with kitchen knives and rolling pins. A couple more were in a bed room, and they attacked us with table legs. We then looked down a hall into the main living area, and noticed a couple of people sitting in their chairs looking at a smokey fire. Marcus tumbled into the room, and kobolds threw sheets at him as if they were nets. Kobolds holding human heads jumped off the chairs and attacked. Oelwyn's bow and Welby's crossbow cut through a few of the kobolds, while Heian's sword cut many of the beasts down. The town's people rewarded us with a few pieces of gold, the Halflings looked confused at gold and wondered what it was for... so Oelwyn held it for the 'kids'.

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Meeting of the Mines

We boarded a ship and began our journey toward a new island in search of adventure. We stopped at an intermediate island at a mining camp. We were going to be there for a few days, so instead of being bored by sitting in town, we decided to scout the countryside. After a while, we spotted a piece of paper underneath a rock. It was written in a language that none of us knew. So we went back to the mining camp and asked around to see if anyone could read it for us. A dwarven foreman read it for us, it was a map to the lost a Dwarven Kingdom of legend, said to have been overrun by orcs and other foul beasts ages ago.

Sounded like adventure, so we went off looking for any signs to lead us to the Kingdom of old. We were attacked by a few Giant Ants, Heian slashed them with his sword, Oelwyn and Welby tried to shoot them with their bows, and Marcus bashed their torso with his small mace. After dispatching the Giant Ants, we eventually found a marker from the map, and followed it towards the lost Kingdom. We found the main trail and followed it up, but turned off the path when we spotted smoke coming from over the hill. There were orcs down by a lake, so we knew we were at the right place. Oelwyn and Welby began raining arrows down on the orcs and killed them all. We found the source of the smoke, it was a chimney. We lowered each other down the chimney, and found ourselves inside the lost Dwarven Kingdom. We navigated the various tunnels, and encounter more orcs and an orc shaman. After a few fights, we withdrew back outside to heal.

When we returned to the trails entrance, we decide to follow the trail to see where it led. It wound up a mountain side, and we spotted a few orc guards at the top. Welby skipped up to them, trying to draw them away from their post, but they just shot an arrow at him. Welby, having learned the ways of magic recently, responded with a Magic Missile and then ran down the trail. The orcs stayed fast, so the entire party charged them, and the orcs ran back into their complex. As we got around the corner, there were arrow slits on the opposite wall... with arrows shooting out at us. We contined past the arrow slits and encountered the orc guards in the hallway, and after Heian dispatched them, we continued down the hall and came upon a locked door. Once it was bashed down, there was a rope bridge on the opposite side. Across the bridge were two orcs with bows hiding behind rocks. Oelwyn and Welby killed them with arrows of their own. We then found secret doors leading to the rooms with the arrow slits, and we slayed the orcs behind the walls. We held up in one of the rooms with the arrow slits for the night. During our rest, orcs came through another secret door, and after defeating them and resting the remainder of the night, we went through the new secret door.

We wandered down a few roughly cut hall ways, and came upon a big door with a Skull spiked to it. We opened the door and disturbed an Ogre and his two wolf pets. Uthar was his name, and he proceeded to proclaim his superiority as he and his wolves charged us. Welby kept the Ogre busy with more of his new magic by making the Ogre fall on the Grease that appeared in it's path. While Uthar was slipping and sliding, Heian, Marcus and Oelwyn took out the wolves, and then the Ogre finally got up, but shortly after he went down again, this time for good. We explored the rest of the caves and found a roughly carved stairway heading down. At the bottom of the stairs, there were a few battles with Stirges and Troglodytes. We wandered into a raised section of a cavern and it overlooked a huge cavern. Inside the raised section were old tombs of some of the dwarven heroes of ages long forgotten, most of which had been pillaged. Behind one of the tombs, the wall appeared to be made of rubble instead of solid stone. After clearing the rubble, we crossed into another cavern with some small rivers running through them. As we tried to cross the rivers, we were attacked by more Troglodyte guards. After we routed the guards, we continued into the Troglodyte lair, which had numerous families... very few still live.

Back in the huge cavern, a few passages led into other rooms, one filled with many stalagtites and stalagmites... being suspicious, we narrowly escaped from being a roper's meal. Down another cooridor, a group of duegar were manning some old forges, yet we were able to overcome these denizens of the underdark. And finding a secret passway lead us to a large hole in the ground that the river was running down like a waterfall. Hidden hand holds led us down the hole to another cavern with a lake. While the party scouted around the area, a young black dragon stuck it's head out of the water and spewed it's acidic breath at us. After a few volleys of arrows and Magic Missiles we retreated to a small cave in the cavern to rest. When the party emerged from the cave to continue the battle with the dragon, the dragon had fled... but left it's treasure at the bottom of the lake... it's a good thing we had two sea haflings with us.

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Shipwrecked

After we defeated the dragon and reclaimed the dwarven kingdom, the party spent many a night at the tavern telling grand tales of our adventure, until we got word from a passing merchant ship that all of the Civus Protectorate was being recalled back to Civus Itantia, the capital city of the Itantan Islands. We boarded the next ship that was headed north. While we sailed north, a nasty storm hit and it caused damage to the ship and luckily the captain was able to get the ship to shore on a small island. Some of the crew started scouting out the island to see if they could find any materials to repair the ship, and they spotted another ship wedged up on some rocks... but the crew was too scared to approach it. The captain asked us to investigate the ship, and prove that it is safe to the rest of the crew so they could make the necessary repairs. We approached the shipwreck, and climbed on board. In the back cabin was a group of ghouls, and after fighting through some paralysis, we were able to put these members of the former crew to rest. Below deck was not much better, a few more ghouls and a shadow inhabited the halls and rooms. In the captain's quarters, was an apparition of the captain overlooking maps of the region. Marcus pretended to be one of the captain's crew and talked with the captain and learned that the captain's spirit was still here because the spirit felt guilty for costing the lives of all of the crew. Marcus' sailor act eased the spirit, and we left the shipwreck and let our crew finish their repairs. And we got back underway, and continued on to Civus Itantia.

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Pirates

When we arrived at Civus Itantia, the dock warden approached us and Heian informed him that he was a member of the Civus Protectorate and the warden informed the party that they should go to the headquarters for instructions. Upon arriving a the HQ, we are informed that two trading ships have gone missing, they are presumed sunk, and their crews killed by the Reef Pirates. In the past, the pirates did not kill the crew, they just took the goods. So we were asked to investigate the Island of Eer. We purchased a keelboat and left for the Island of Eer.

When we docked at the first port we found on Eer, we pulled up next to two huge trading ships. We went to the tavern, and asked a few questions. Our questions were not welcomed, and we were instructed to go see the boss. The door to the house was guarded by a pair of Hill Giants, the crew for the Reef Pirates, and we were instructed that if we wanted to see the boss, then we would have to leave our weapons here. Marcus, Welby and Heian decided to see the boss, while Oelwyn stayed outside with their equipment and the Hill Giants. The boss was inside a house, down a staircase, and in a small room. The boss was a halfling in an officer's uniform, a Reef Pirate officer. We weren't told anything important, and then the halfling and his guards left and said they would be back in the morning. Oelwyn was thrown downstairs, and the party was locked inside. Fearing what the pirates might do to us in the morning, we were able to pick the lock, and escape the downstairs room. The party retrieved it's gear from upstairs, and we snuck back to the docks. We realized that these were the two missing boats, and before we could do anything a halfling, a Hill Giant, a wizard and his apprentice approached the docks. The two wizards boarded one of the ships, and Welby and Oelwyn snuck after them to see what they were up to. They discovered that the wizards were putting arcane spells on the boat to blow out the bottom of the ship in order to sink it. Meanwhile, Marcus and Heian watched the halfling order the Hill Giant around, and the giant followed the orders by getting the boats ready to sail out to be sunk. Welby andOelwyn snuck back to the rest of the party, and the party realized they had to do something before the boats were sunk. The party took aim at the giant, and let loose a volley of arrows. The giant roared in disgust, and jumped down to the dock and proceeded to pound the party. The main wizard came above deck and was hit with an arrow, and he retreated. The halfling pirate snuck up behind Oelwyn and hit him hard, Oelwyn responded with a few arrows into the halfling's chest, and Marcus helped finish him off. But the giant was too powerful and he crushed Heian. And then turned on Oelwyn, but Oelwyn would not surrender or just lay down and die, so he continued to shoot arrow after arrow at the giant, and then the giant just stopped attacking him. The giant was listening to a halfling giving him orders to stop attacking his crew member, Oelwyn realized this was not another Reef Pirate, but Welby wearing the hat from the fallen officer.

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Southern Trading

The boats are brought out to sea, and the party plus two wizards turned sailors and a hill giant get the ships connected and set sail for Civus Intantia. When we neared the city, Welby took our Keelboat and the giant and docked outside the city, while Marcus, Oelwyn, and the two wizards brought the ships into the main dock. The warden is a little shocked at the arrival of the two 'sunken' ships. The two wizards part ways, and Marcus and Oelwyn take Heian's body to the headquarters of the Civus Protectorate for proper burial.

Not sure what we did with the Southern Trading Union, or how excatly we met Sol and Zen. But we pretended to be members of the Reef pirates and went after some cargo... price higher???

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The Birthstone

Go to Ona to get the cargo, strange magic, vision of a goddess, cages, meet wizard for cargo. when leaving real pirates show up w/ giant ... into cages.

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More Adventures...

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